CSU Total Care

Automate user account management, including workflow, and reduce the number of passwords with password synchronization and single sign-on

Less pressure on the helpdesk due to users being able to reset their passwords. Users can request authorizations and changes to user accounts occur automatically

CSU users benefit from password synchronisation between AD and IBM i

Professional cleaners CSU Total Care (which also encompasses the homecare organization Tzorg) is one of the largest national cleaning companies in the Netherlands, with around 14,000 permanent staff and 21 branches. At the end of 2010 the IT department wanted to speed up the user management processes. There was also a desire to make the login process simpler for the 650 users. Ben Helleman, ICT Administration Manager with CSU: "At the helpdesk we received plenty of requests for creating and removing new users and authorizations, and we had to process these requests manually. We also handled requests which were entirely unnecessary. This was because we were working on the basis of a cost centre structure. All users are authorized for their own cost centre, but sometimes also have access to another cost centre. Authorizations were often requested for a cost centre which might already have been approached. The helpdesk also received numerous calls for password resets. Our users have to log in daily to a variety of systems, namely Windows, IBM i (OS/400 and i5/OS) and various websites, and that made the login process very laborious. What we wanted was for users to need only one password to gain access to all their applications."

Connector with IBM i

CSU went looking for a suitable solution armed with an important requirement: that the solution would work with IBM i. This system contained critical business applications from UNIT4 for which it was necessary that user authorizations were correct, such as the ERP system and the financial (FIS) and personnel data (EMIS). Several years ago CSU switched from Novell Identity Manager, in line with the phasing out of Novell products. However, Ben Helleman believes the replacement, Microsoft, also did not offer the right flexibility to be able to link with the IBM i environment. "If we wanted to work on the IBM I environment with Microsoft, then we had to carry out a huge number of modifications to get it working, including setting up Kerberos etc. I also believe that the package IBM offers contained too many gaps." Ben Helleman adds: "Another requirement is that we sought just one package or supplier for user account management, single sign-on, password synchronization and password self-service. In Tools4ever we found the supplier offering all this with their products UMRA, E-SSOM, PSM and SSRPM."

"We sought just one package or supplier for User Account Management, Single Sign On, Password Synchronization and Password Self-Service."

Ben Helleman, ICT Administration Manager with CSU Total Care

Password Synchronization between AD and IBM i

Tools4ever's UMRA solution linked to IBM i via a Powershell script, so that various user management tasks were modified directly in the UNIT4 packages. The helpdesk indicates what changes must be made using an electronic form, for example enable or disable user, after which UMRA automatically executes this change. Tools4ever's PSM then carries out password synchronization between the Active Directory and this platform, so that users now need just one password for both environments. UMRA also records a database, so that a query can be submitted in SQL for reports on cost centres, for example.

Workflow Management

Alongside the important advantage that users now only need one password to log in, CSU has seen the number of calls to the helpdesk for a password reset decline dramatically thanks to the deployment of Tools4ever's SSRPM. Such password reset calls previously made up 30 per cent of the total call volume. Pressure on the helpdesk has also eased significantly through the implementation of UMRA's Workflow Management module. This module offers a web-based dashboard in which managers and users themselves can request authorizations. When an application concerning an application on the IBM i platform is approved, then it arrives via the database with the programmers and – where possible – UMRA executes the changes directly in the network. In the future Ben Helleman also wants to run other request processes via the workflow module, for example ordering a mobile phone. Thanks to the TOPdesk connector for CSU, UMRA can write information to TOPdesk, so that a ticket is automatically created. Alongside automating the user management tasks, in this way the IT department also benefits from a simplification of the ITIL management processes.

About Tools4ever

Tools4ever is one of the largest vendors in Identity Governance & Administration (also known as Identity & Access Management) with more than 5 million managed user accounts.

Since 1999 Tools4ever has developed and delivered several software solutions and consultancy services such as User Provisioning, Downstream Provisioning, Workflow Management, Employee Self-Service and Access Governance (RBAC). In the area of Password Management, Tools4ever offers Single Sign-On and Self-Service Password Reset among others.

Tools4ever's Identity Governance & Administration (IGA) solutions are installed in organizations from various sectors ranging in size from 300 to over 200,000 user accounts.